McCAFFERY: Collins is glue keeping Sixers from falling apart

PHILADELPHIA -- Doug Collins' first Sixers team was 3-13, won nine of 11 late in the season, and made the playoffs.

Doug Collins' second Sixers team lost nine of 11 in the spring, but won four of their last five and a playoff round.

Doug Collins' third Sixers team was 15-22 Saturday as it landed in the Wells Fargo Center, where it would play 12 of its next 13. And?

"We're not going to splinter," Collins said. "That's not going to happen. Not as long as I am the coach. That won't happen."

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He said so with deep credibility, two seasons' worth, two seasons where his team was prematurely considered finished, by the public, sometimes in print. He said so in January, not March, with more than half a season to play and a wicked hunk of its schedule behind.

He said so even though his center hasn't played, might never play, and might not be what he was expected to be even if he does play. He said so as his defense has vanished and his offense has retreated to the perimeter.

He said it, and he meant it, because he knows how a clubhouse works, and not always in basketball.

"They used to ask Casey Stengel how he kept his teams together," Collins said. "And he said, 'I keep the nine guys who like me from the 15 who don't.'"

It was unclear if the Hall of Fame manager said that while he was managing the Yankees to seven world championships, or whether it was when his Mets were losing 120 out of a buck-60. What was clear was that it has been OK to ask of the Sixers recently, "Can't anybody here play this game?"

They can play basketball, and they did Saturday, defeating the Houston Rockets, 107-100. They won the way they were constructed to win, with Andrew Bynum or by all means without. They moved the ball and swished jumpers, defended at least enough to challenge shots, and ran the way the home team is supposed to run -- comfortably, effectively, like they enjoyed it, not like they were lugging the burden of Bynum's bowling bag.

"What I want for our guys, more than anything else, is to have one of those games where they just feel good playing," Collins said. "I don't think people realize how losing weighs on these guys. These guys are disappointed. They don't want to lose. They want to win. So it is up to me to not let them get discouraged, to keep them chipping away at the rock. You need to get that first win before you get two in a row."

Collins spent the past few days appealing to his captains, Thad Young, Jason Richardson and Jrue Holiday, asking them to lead, reminding them not to look back. He mixed Damien Wilkins further into his rotation for a defensive presence at the playing-time expense of Nick Young. Thus, the winning formula: Some motivation, some practical moves.

"The only thing you can do is learn from what happened," Collins said. "I don't want to make any excuses, but I don't think any team in the league played that kind of a 15-game schedule, 13 on the road, with the teams we played, four without Jrue. When they are bunched like that, it's tough."

The Sixers may not be a classic NBA team, but they had to be better than they'd shown in their previous five, all losses, none really close. The other night, Collins threw a shot at, of all vulnerable targets, the Big East, saying that unlike that conference, he couldn't write his own schedule. Such has been his position, that the worst of the workload is behind.

But at home or deep in a holiday-time road trip, some basketball standards matter. The Sixers met most of them Saturday, rebounding with authority, shooting comfortably and making 17,329 wonder what all that Jeremy Lin carry-on is about.

With that, they were 1-0 in their 12-of-13 homestand, and showed why it might matter -- now, and when Bynum returns. Because just like those other years under their coach, when they had the chance, they didn't splinter.